Toshiba’s lurch from crisis to crisis since 2015 -Breaking
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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO – The Toshiba Corp. logo is seen in the Kawasaki facility, Japan on June 10, 2021. REUTERS/Kim KyungHoon/File Photograph GLOBAL WEEK AheadTOKYO (Reuters) – Toshiba Corp will unveil a new business plan on Friday. Once-storied conglomerate has suffered from accounting scandals, huge writedowns in the U.S. nuclear business and the loss of its prized chip division. Additionally, it was discovered to have collaborated to block overseas investors from rising to power.
Below is the timeline that shows Toshiba’s woes from 2015 to 2015.
2015: Toshiba discloses accounting errors across several divisions. This included top management. Over seven years, the company overstated pretax profits in total by 230 Billion yen ($2B).
Dec. 2016: Toshiba declares it will charge several hundred million dollars to cover a U.S. nuclear power plant company Westinghouse Electric had purchased a year prior.
March 2017: Westinghouse files Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The reason is cost overruns that have cost billions and the long delays in U.S. power project construction. Toshiba Memory is being sold because of its $6 billion worth of liabilities.
Sept. 2017 – Toshiba agrees to sell the chip unit to a consortium led by Bain Capital for $18 billion, a deal under which Toshiba retains a large stake. Toshiba desperately wants the deal to be completed by March 31, in order not to lose its listing for liabilities exceeding assets. Toshiba is involved in an ongoing legal dispute with its chip joint venture partner Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:). Antitrust investigations and discussions about the sale are likely to last for months.
Dec. 2017 – Toshiba gets a $5.4billion cash injection, courtesy of 30+ investors from overseas. It helps avoid delisting. However, it also attracts prominent activist shareholders such as Elliott Management and Third Point (NYSE:). The dispute is settled with Western Digital.
April 2018, Toshiba seeks to make a fresh start by bringing in Nobuaki Kurumatani (NYSE:) Financial Group) as its chief executive.
June 2018: Toshiba sells Toshiba Memory (renamed Kioxia) to the Bain consortium.
Juni 2019 – Toshiba has invited four non-Japanese directors onto its board of directors, bowing to activist investors.
January 2020: Toshiba discovers new accounting errors at its wholly-owned subsidiary.
July 2020: Five directors are removed from Toshiba’s Annual General Meeting by activists shareholders who want to strengthen governance and implement a change strategy.
Sept. 2020: Toshiba, which has more than 1,000 forms of postal voting for its AGM, announces that they have not been counted. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (the bank that counted votes) later discovered widespread failures to count valid votes during AGMs at client companies over the past 20 years.
March 2021 – Shareholders vote to authorize an independent investigation into claims that investors were pressured before last year’s AGM.
April 2021 – CVC Capital Partners makes an unsolicited $21 billion offer to take Toshiba private. After controversy surrounding the CVC bid by CVC Capital Partners, Kurumatani quits as CEO. This was considered to be a way for him to avoid activist shareholders. Some activist shareholders are angered by Toshiba’s dismissal of CVC offers.
June 10, 2021 – The shareholder-commissioned investigation concludes Toshiba colluded with Japan’s trade ministry – which sees Toshiba as a strategic asset due to its nuclear reactor and defence technology – to block overseas investors from gaining influence at the 2020 shareholders meeting.
June 25, 2021: Shareholders dismiss Osamu Nagayama, the chairman of the board. This is after criticisms that the board failed to deal with the claims about overseas investors being pressured. Toshiba promises to conduct a thorough review of its assets and meet with potential investors.
November 12, 2021: Toshiba will announce a new strategy for business. Toshiba is contemplating splitting the company into three distinct companies, each focused on hardware, memory chips, and infrastructure. This would help address the persistent conglomerate discount.
($1 = 113.5900 yen)
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